Publications by authors named "Elizabeth Wignall-Fleming"
Article Synopsis
- The detection of neurotropic astroviruses, particularly the MLB genogroup, has surged, posing risks of gastroenteritis and neurological issues in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.
- Researchers identified specific regions in the virus's genetic material that can be modified to create less harmful versions of the virus, which were confirmed through experiments in neuronal cultures.
- This innovative method could pave the way for developing vaccine candidates by using these safer versions of astroviruses that could affect humans and animals.
Article Synopsis
- Copyback defective virus genomes (DVGs) are mistakenly produced during the replication of parainfluenza virus 5 and act as strong inducers of the innate immune response, particularly the interferon (IFN) response.
- High levels of nondefective (ND) virus can inhibit DVGs from activating the IFN response, while DVGs can interfere with ND virus replication.
- Research reveals that DVGs invoke an uncharacterized innate response that curtails their own replication and suggests there are inherent regional, size, and structural preferences in their amplification, highlighting their potential therapeutic use in antiviral strategies.
In reverse genetic experiments we have isolated recombinant mumps viruses (rMuV) that carry large numbers of mutations clustered in small parts of their genome, which are not caused by biased hyper-mutation. In two separate experiments we obtained such recombinant viruses: one virus had 11 mutations in the V/P region of the genome; the other, which also contained an extra transcription unit encoding green fluorescent protein (EGFP), had 32 mutations in the N gene. These specific sets of mutations have not been observed in naturally occurring MuV isolates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have developed a high-throughput sequencing (HTS) workflow for investigating paramyxovirus transcription and replication. We show that sequencing of oligo(dT)-selected polyadenylated mRNAs, without considering the orientation of the RNAs from which they had been generated, cannot accurately be used to analyze the abundance of viral mRNAs because genomic RNA copurifies with the viral mRNAs. The best method is directional sequencing of infected cell RNA that has physically been depleted of ribosomal and mitochondrial RNA followed by bioinformatic steps to differentiate data originating from genomes from viral mRNAs and antigenomes.
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- Paramyxoviruses can cause long-lasting infections that may lead to chronic diseases, but the specific molecular processes behind this are not well understood.
- Using parainfluenza virus type 5 (PIV5) as a study model, researchers discovered that the phosphorylation of a protein called P is crucial for determining whether the virus will either become repressed or continue to replicate late in the infection.
- Variants of the P protein can shift the infection from a lytic (cell-killing) outcome to a persistent one, with lytic variants initially replicating more efficiently but being cleared from the body faster as the immune system responds.
We have sequenced the parainfluenza virus 5 strain that persistently infects the commonly used AGS human cell line without causing cytopathology. This virus is most closely related to human strains, indicating that it may have originated from biopsy material or from laboratory contamination during generation of the cell line.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: A more comprehensive understanding of hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission dynamics could facilitate public health initiatives to reduce the prevalence of HCV in people who inject drugs. We aimed to determine how HCV sequences entered and spread throughout Scotland and to identify transmission hot spots. A Scottish data set with embedded demographic data was created by sequencing the NS5B of 125 genotype 1a (Gt1a) samples and 166 Gt3a samples and analyzed alongside sequences from public databases.
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